This tutorial is a adaptation of “Digital Music – Lesson One: A Few Basics and Some Genres“. The author of this tutorial deserves all credits.

How to make a simple Hip-Hop Beat

Learn making a hip-hop beat on FL Studio

A Few Basics on Hip Hop rythm

N.B C&H1 (3) is a snare sample !

Let’s begin by slowing the tempo to something more in the Hip Hop style. A speed somewhere in the 90s bpm, along with the patten below, will sound Hip Hop or Rap to most of people :

As you can see , I simply added a hi-hat pattern accenting every other box or every on beat and every off-beat to the basic kick and snare pattern from above . Of course , hip hop is not confined to that rhythm. Many variations exist and you’ll be able to create something new and fresh with a simple change on that pattern.

For example, this pattern will sound really different when we simply move the second kick of a few places:

There are many places to add or remove drums kicks in hip hop . Almost of the time we want a kick on beat 1 to accentuate the downbeat, try placing drum kicks somewhere else on the pattern for good synchronization. Every new drum kick adds another kind of vartiation to the rythm. Try a bit and you will feel the difference between diferent rythms.

Also, we usually want to keep snares on beats 2 and 4. But adding snares can provide nice moves and movement. A good way to don’t mess is to avoid a kick and a snare sounding on the same beat ! (excepting sometimes when a kick on 2 or 4 or a snare on 1 can be very awesome).

This is one example to vary the hi hat pattern, but such patterns tend to sound better when played with percussions like “shaker” that work like a subsitute for hi-hat)

The tempo is very important in making a hip-hop beat. If you want a track that sounds really hip hop try to put the tempo between 80 and 110 bpm.

N.B C&H1 (3) is a snare sample !

Hip Hop Beat Video

Coming very soon !

Download Free Hip Hop Samples